full transcript

From the Ted Talk by WorkLife with Adam Grant: The office without a**holes

Unscramble the Blue Letters


BS: I mean, this is one of the biggest problems with treating people like dirt: they're less likely to call out errors done by others.

AG: To avoid mistakes, people have to communicate, especially about things that might go wrong. An asshole creates an environment of fear, where people stay silent to aovid rikoncg the boat. And if getting dmeiettaovd isn't bad enough, get this: working with an asolhse lliealtry makes you dumber.

BS: There's some evidence that after one has been abused or disrespected, that one's cognitive ability is temporarily affected.

AG: One experiment is especially revealing. Students showed up for a sudty, only to learn that they were in the wrong room and had eeretnd a professor's ofcfie. For some students, the professor just directed them to the right room. The other half of the time, the students got this:

Open Cloze


BS: I mean, this is one of the biggest problems with treating people like dirt: they're less likely to call out errors done by others.

AG: To avoid mistakes, people have to communicate, especially about things that might go wrong. An asshole creates an environment of fear, where people stay silent to _____ _______ the boat. And if getting ___________ isn't bad enough, get this: working with an _______ _________ makes you dumber.

BS: There's some evidence that after one has been abused or disrespected, that one's cognitive ability is temporarily affected.

AG: One experiment is especially revealing. Students showed up for a _____, only to learn that they were in the wrong room and had _______ a professor's ______. For some students, the professor just directed them to the right room. The other half of the time, the students got this:

Solution


  1. literally
  2. asshole
  3. study
  4. demotivated
  5. avoid
  6. entered
  7. office
  8. rocking

Original Text


BS: I mean, this is one of the biggest problems with treating people like dirt: they're less likely to call out errors done by others.

AG: To avoid mistakes, people have to communicate, especially about things that might go wrong. An asshole creates an environment of fear, where people stay silent to avoid rocking the boat. And if getting demotivated isn't bad enough, get this: working with an asshole literally makes you dumber.

BS: There's some evidence that after one has been abused or disrespected, that one's cognitive ability is temporarily affected.

AG: One experiment is especially revealing. Students showed up for a study, only to learn that they were in the wrong room and had entered a professor's office. For some students, the professor just directed them to the right room. The other half of the time, the students got this:

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
bob sutton 4
organizational psychologist 2
randomly assigned 2
steve jobs 2
walter isaacson 2
assume good 2
staff meeting 2
aaron walked 2
promo code 2
code ted 2
hire people 2
luis von 2
start hiring 2
toxic worker 2
law firm 2
junior associates 2
senior partners 2
difficult time 2
individual results 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
promo code ted 2

Important Words


  1. ability
  2. abused
  3. affected
  4. asshole
  5. avoid
  6. bad
  7. biggest
  8. boat
  9. call
  10. cognitive
  11. communicate
  12. creates
  13. demotivated
  14. directed
  15. disrespected
  16. dumber
  17. entered
  18. environment
  19. errors
  20. evidence
  21. experiment
  22. fear
  23. learn
  24. literally
  25. mistakes
  26. office
  27. people
  28. problems
  29. professor
  30. revealing
  31. rocking
  32. room
  33. showed
  34. silent
  35. stay
  36. students
  37. study
  38. temporarily
  39. time
  40. treating
  41. working
  42. wrong